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El Caballo’s Future in Houston

Former left fielder, now first baseman Carlos Lee is considered the main power hitter in the Astros lineup, and is a favorite for the designated hitter for the Astros in the 2013 season when the team will change leagues, from the National League to the American League. The only problem with that notion is that Lee is in the final year in his six-year – $100 million contract.

On the topic of re-signing with Houston after the 2012 season, Lee, in an exclusive interview, said “I’d be happy to do it, but that’s up to the front office and what their plans are”

A verbal statement that he would be willing to extend his tenure to Houston, but did not seem very enthusiastic during the interview. To be fair to Lee, he did not seem to like the idea of being moved from a position player to a designated hitter in the American League, new Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow spoke on resigning Lee “There is a lot of factors that will go into that, we’re talking about a year from now, [the] first thing that needs to happen is Carlos needs to do is go out and have a good year and help us win some ballgames. That’s really is what’s in front of us, I’m not sure he’s ready to give up being a position player, so we’ll have to wait and see when that comes, he’s still a productive bat and will be for years to come.”

a resonating statement that matches Lee’s attitude towards taking a lighter role with the team. There is indeed faith that Lee will be productive and powerful as he usually is, but the main question is his clutch factor, while he does get 90 RBIs with 30 home runs, it’s at a time where he will get a solo shot or just an RBI when the team is already down by a considerable amount of runs. In order for Lee to be resigned, he will have to earn it, either having a banner year, or being a clutch player.

When asked about what he expects out of himself numbers wise, Lee stated “I don’t go by numbers, I just try to stay healthy and try to help.”

Asked if he’d consider trading Lee or any of the Astros star veterans, Lunhow stated “Right now, we are pretty happy with the team that we have, we’re gonna start the season really trying and win as many games as possible as the season goes on we’re probably gonna look at any opportunity we have to improve the ball club whether that means moving someone that we have or trading for someone . . . we’re happy with the roster we have we’re gonna use every opportunity to improve this ballclub moving forward”

Luhnow and staff has expectations for Lee in order to resign him, look forward to seeing Lee possibly having a fire lit under him to earn his keep, and the possiblity of a trade is certainly not out of the question, and will look into any opportunity presented to him.